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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

DBM urged to use GAA format in reporting status of projects

MANILA-Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto today batted for a “new budget accountability form” that will promote transparency by showing if a project, activity or program authorized in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) had indeed been implemented.

Under his proposal, the government will be following the same text and format used in the GAA to prove that it had implemented its provisions.

“The idea is for the executive to return to us the same GAA but this time it will be in annotated form. Every funding item in the GAA of the previous year will carry a corresponding note indicating when it was completed and the amount spent for its completion,” Recto said.

“If a line-item in the GAA says that P100 million is appropriated for this road, then what we want is for the government to submit next year the same GAA with a status report opposite the line-item,” Recto said.

“If the GAA authorizes the recruitment of, say, 10,000 new policemen and 50,000 new teachers, then what we want is for the executive to superimpose in that GAA a note stating the actual number of policemen and teachers hired, “ Recto added.

Recto noted “that at present it is hard for Congress or for its constituents to check whether a specific project authorized in the GAA has indeed been completed, or has been realigned or has had its funds impounded.”

The reason for this is that the familiar budgeting format used during the first two phases—Budget Authorization and Budget Execution—is not applied during the Budget Accountability phase.

He was referring to three of four budgeting phases:

1. Budget Authorization, when the budget is being debated in Congress,

2. Budget Execution, when the GAA is being implemented; and

3. Budget Accountability, when projects funded by the GAA are audited.

The first phase, budget preparation, is when details of next year’s spending are hammered out in the executive and collated in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) or the President’s Budget.

The NEP later evolves into the General Appropriations Bill which in turn becomes the General Appropriations Act.

“The problem is that what should have been a seamless progression of the budgeting process is interrupted in the accountability phase because there is no feedback as to the status of the projects, programs and activities sought to be funded,” lamented Recto.